As the world’s climate heats up, will we continue to use more energy-intensive air conditioning, generating ever-higher greenhouse gas emissions? It’s a valid question for the first full day of summer, considering that the average American household already uses 2,822 kWh of energy each year to cool off, spending $276 a year. The answer will likely depend on building efficiency measures and new cooling technologies like these efficient new bladeless fans announced today by Sir James Dyson, of vacuum fame. The inventor’s new fan is the opening salvo, he says, in his war on air conditioning.

The fan works like a jet engine, sucking air into a cyclone accelerator that amplifies it 15 to 18 times before blowing it out over an airfoil-shaped ramp. As that air is blown out, more is sucked in from behind. With no blades, the airstream is smooth and the contraption is easy to clean and more difficult to break one’s finger in (just sayin’). The fan runs on a modest 40-watt motor.

Dyson’s fans may not be the final answer to staying cool in a warming climate, but they’re certainly a step in the right direction.

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16 Comments

Normally a portable air conditioner requires a host sticking out a window, how does Dyson’s air conditioner works? I see no host. Can you please explain. I am talking about air-con and not a fan.

muffitOctober 8, 2012 at 8:03 pm

how much elec does the heat/cool use? I pay the bills..

jandekJanuary 29, 2012 at 1:53 am

This new Dyson product is useless for cooling. Moving air does not cool anything. Our new developed swamp cooler without the negatives like moisture in the room cools really and consumes 30 % of the energy of your AC with the same cooling capacity.

One thing I would like to say is the fact that before purchasing more personal computer memory, check out the machine within which it would be installed. In case the machine is running Windows XP, for instance, the memory ceiling is 3.25GB. The installation of a lot more than this would just constitute just a waste. Make sure that one’s motherboard can handle this upgrade volume, as well. Thanks for your blog post.

[...] drowning victims. The system, designed by Samuel Adeloju of Australia, won this year’s James Dyson [...]

ccalde1961July 17, 2010 at 11:35 pm

Dyson lives in England where the people think 80F is Very HOT Summer weather. He would be throwing his little loop out the window within an hour,if he had to be living and sleeping with only his invention to keep him cool in the heat and humidity this past Summer in the mid-Atlantic states of the USA 2010

[...] temperature-sensitive creatures, which means we use a ton of power every year through heating and air-conditioning systems. But imagine if there were a way to save the summer’s hot air and use it to heat buildings [...]

dw@sciJuly 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm

Myself and my company already built these for military use so our troops could set them up simply in these desert, or anywhere they needed “heating or cooling.” As a lucky side output, it can also heat and cool liquids.
Currently, we are working at removing the IED from being the life taker (as well as land mines, etc.) and/or destroyer…

Best, David Woroner
CEO/SCI

larry chavezJuly 7, 2010 at 1:21 pm

I bought a 10″ Dyson fan. It is lovely and you might say a work of Art…..But,….I have returned it for a refund..reason…its too noisey. You place it next to a regular fan of the same size and you immediately hear the difference. It also seems to hit a certin freq that after 20min or so, you start experiencing a headache……What a shame

greginmichiganJuly 3, 2010 at 12:15 pm

This could possibly be modified to create something truly spectacular. I’m buying one to invent or recreate something special. Perhaps I’ll return here to let others know. This seems to cool better because it seems to move a lot more air, but the air needs to be chilled a bit by something. I don’t know if 40 watts is a lot of energy, compared to other fans, it’s probably more efficient which can save energy money spent over time if you use a fan.

agrajagJune 24, 2010 at 4:19 am

This is just a fan. It doesn’t do anything a normal $20 fan doesn’t do, it moves air around, which is useful, but hardly a replacement for AC. (you can run your AC in fan-only mode, and save 95% of the energy, but people dont — I wonder why ?)

The main difference between this, and an average fan, is a) that it looks interesting, and b) that it costs 20 times the price. Neither of these two properties will do anything at all to reduce AC-usage.

forrestrmJune 23, 2010 at 11:12 am

If a fan is bladeless then is it really a fan? Anyway, Dyson’s own web page explains their new device and it has fan blades – they just don’t have to be as fast moving, and so I presume are quieter and use less energy. The real innovation is the induction and amplification of that air movement. But don’t call it bladeless.

perfectcirclecarpenterJune 23, 2010 at 2:57 am

Hide the fan blades in a cyclone and call it the new fan, then mark up the price tag of the plastic contraption 1000%. At least they are cool to look at.
The guy knows how to fool em, but this ain’t nuthin new.
Run a culvert through the stable temperature of earth berms beside the house, and let the chimney effect pull it in, that’s real genius.
I still can’t find a single article about Michael Reynolds work on your site. Are you guys daft? The guy is at the top of the green revolution.

ifritJune 22, 2010 at 4:37 pm

I’m sorry but despite the lovely designs, Dyson is nothing more than a self propelled hype machine. One who is not above lying about their products (Blade style hand dryers have been used in Japan for at least the past decade).

dejimaJune 22, 2010 at 2:58 pm

If dyson is really trying to combat air-con, this make this affordable, then not only can a no one match the tech, but no one would be able to touch them in the market.

dejimaJune 22, 2010 at 2:42 pm

I really like dysons tech. Only things is it not attainable by the mass. Not everyone has $500 to drop on a fan.